Some vehicles travel over surfaces where there are large surface irregularities. One example of such a vehicle would be an all terrain vehicle traveling over an unprepared surface. Yet other vehicles travel at high speeds over hills, with the prospect of becoming airborne at the top of the hill. An example of such a vehicle would be a motorcycle engaged in a motocross race. Yet other vehicles are subjected to relatively infrequent loads that nonetheless fully compress the suspension. An example of such a vehicle is an aircraft landing on an aircraft carrier. In all of these cases, as well as others, there is a need to design the suspension of the vehicle for the possibility that the vehicle suspension will bottom out in compression. Likewise, there is also a need to design vehicle suspensions for the possibility that the suspension will bottom out in rebound.
Various embodiments of the present invention address these situations in novel and unobvious ways.